I Sing Alone
by Darkchilde
Summary: Set during "Best Behavior". What was going through Daisy's head when Ezra was in the hospital?


Disclaimer and Author's note: Okay, I don't own these characters. I know that I messed up the dialouge between Daisy and Shelby (that comes directly from the show), and I'm sorry. I was doing it from memory. Song is Dido's.  
  
I Sing Alone  
Darkchilde  
  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I sing alone  
while I watch the ocean  
my lover's gone  
no earthly ships  
will ever bring him  
home again  
  
The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.   
  
At least, that's how it seemed to Daisy Lipenowski. She leaned back against the cushion of the couch, her eyes glued to the wall in front of her. A clock resided on that wall, and she was currently enraptured with watching the pendulum swing back and forth, back and forth. However, as stimulating as it was, it wasn't keeping her mind off of the gnawing worry at the back of her neck. Her stomach was also not helping, turning a cartwheel every time she heard footsteps. Her fingernails refused to leave the comfort of her kneecaps, and eyes kept getting wet. She continually blinked away the half-formed tears in her eyes, willing herself to stay cold.   
  
For some reason, it just wasn't working. Her heart was beating to fast against her ribcage, and she could hear the blood rushing in her veins. Her breathing was quick and erratic, even to her own ears. She was sure that someone was going to notice soon, and that would NOT be a good thing.   
  
Closing her eyes, she took a deep calming breath. That didn't work. Never one to give up, she tried it again, pulling as much air as she could into her lungs. As before, it did not work, so she gave up trying, returning to her shallow breathing.   
  
Something in her upper left chest hurt. And it was radiating that hurt all through her, making it hard to breathe. All she wanted to do right now was curl up somewhere and try to make the hurt go away, and leave her in peace. Of course, she didn't think that was going to happen.   
  
Finally, she was able to pull her eyes away from the mesmerizing pendulum on the clock, and look around the lodge at all the other students sitting around, waiting for news that she was beginning to think was never going to come. Cold knives of…pain in her chest brought her up short.   
  
He was going to be okay. Hehad to be okay, because if he wasn't okay she didn't know what she was going to do. Well okay, she did know what she was going to do. She was going to live. She wasn't in love with him or anything, but she didn't want him gone from her life either. She wanted him to get better.   
  
Her lips pulled down into a frown, and she barely restrained herself from chewing on the bottom one. Daisy scanned the room, and found about three pairs of eyes trained on her, watching her. Kate. Auggie. Shelby. What precisely were they looking at?   
  
All of the sudden, she had to get out of there. The air was to thick to breathe, and her eyes were hot and stinging for some reason.   
  
Swallowing hard, the young woman rose to her feet and all but stomped her way out of the lodge. She could still feel the eyes on her back, and it was making her even more annoyed then she was normally. Running her fingers through her hair, she pushed her way out the door, and stopped on the front porch.   
  
Which way did she want to go? She didn't want to go back to the cabin. She wanted to hide.   
  
And she only knew one way to do that.   
  
  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Daisy stared at face in the mirror for a long second, struggling with herself. She knew what she wanted to do, but her time here at Horizon had taught her that hiding was NOT the way to solve her problems. However, she couldn't solve this problem until Peter and Sophie came back and told her that Ezra was okay.   
  
So it looked like it was time to hide, for just a little while longer.   
  
Carefully, she began to apply the white paint she had snatched from the art supply room. This is going to look incredibly stupid, she decided, but right at that moment she didn't care. She just wanted to hide behind Graves for a little while.   
  
Soon, her face was white as a sheet, and she blotted at it lightly with her towel. The paint was going to wreck havoc on her skin, but right then she didn't care. Actually she didn't care about her skin period, but right now, she cared less.   
  
"I'm babbling in my own mind. Not a good sign." Daisy told her reflection, smoothing her fingers over the white paint. She looked down at her fingers covered with the paint, and sighed. Looking back up, she rubbed some of the black ash she had found in the fire pit over her eyelids, making them smoky and black. Next up where the blackberries, whose ink like juice she used to darken her lips to onyx black. When she was finished applying her "make-up", she studied herself in the mirror for a brief second.   
  
Turning away, she made her way out of the bathroom, and into the dark cabin she shared with three other girls. Her already black clothes seemed to make her disappear into the night, and soon she was slipping out the room, intent on physically hiding out from everyone. And maybe even life, if she could get away with it.   
  
She soon found herself in the dark kitchen. The moonlight didn't spill through any of the windows here, so she felt safe enough to slide down against the cabin and pull her legs up to her chest and rest her chin on her legs.   
  
Ezra had to be all right.   
  
He had to.   
  
He just had to.   
  
So caught up in her thoughts, she didn't hear another lost girl wonder into the room, and sit down on the other side of the cabinet she was leaning against. When she finally did realize who was there, she turned to speak to Shelby.   
  
"Hiding from Scott?" She asked, as dryly as she could manage.   
  
"Yeah." Shelby asked, lifting an eyebrow. "What are you hiding from?"   
  
"Life." Daisy muttered, the strange stinging coming back to her eyes.   
  
"Where'd you get the make-up?" The other girl wanted to know.   
  
"Around. Berries, charcoal, paint." Daisy listed, looking at Shelby with dark eyes. The girl tired to force a smile, but it came out weak.   
  
"You know, you look really stupid." Shelby told her simply. Daisy let the corners of her mouth turn up in an almost smile.   
  
"Thanks."   
  
The two were silent for a long time, each caught up in her own thoughts. A hand touching her own yanked Daisy out of her own mind to the present. She looked up, and twisted her lips into an almost smile at Shelby.   
  
"Ezra?" The girl only spoke one word, but that's all that was needed. Swallowing against the lump in her throat, Daisy nodded, looking away. The hot, stinging eye problem was back, and worse then she thought possible.   
  
Before she could stop it, a drop of moisture gathered in the corner of her eye. She blinked, trying to make it dissipate. But instead of going away, the teardrop rolled down her cheek, taking some of the black ash she'd put on her eyes with it. A coldness settled over her, and she closed her eyes, effectively stopping anymore tears from rolling down her cheeks.   
  
Life wasn't fair sometimes.   
  
  



End file.
